Workmen's advocate., 1887-02-12
ON A LOW LEVEL.
Condition of Labor in the Nutmeg
 state.

When child labor long hours, and monthly payments are found together it means that society is on low indus trial level Any one of these things, by itself, creates presumption to that effect; where they are all found, the pre- sumption becomes overwhelming. The fact that they habitually go hand in hand and are found together, indicates that they are not due to accidental differences in business methods, but are at once an indication and a result of the character of the community where they prevail,
 That the prevalence of child laborin- dicateS a bad state of things, hardly needs proof. If d man sends his children to the mills at an early age, it means either that he cannot support his family himself, or that he cares more for a slight increase in his present earnings than for the future welfare of his family. It means that these children are growing up without the advantages of regular education. It means that there is great danger of physical deterioration, and little chance of intellectual Improvement. It means an addition to the ranks of un- skilled labor at present, at the expense of the higher development of those laborers in the future. It means that the com munity is more anxious to increase the quantity of its products than the quality of its citizens.
 In regard to long hours, the case is similar though perhaps not equally ob- vious The good workman, as rule, de. sires and needs the short hours far more than the bad workman. He is better able to make a good use of the leisure time he is better able to work etfic- ently in shorter hours, to work hard for a moderate time instead of working inefh- ciently for a longer time. Down to a certain point, the nations who work shorter hours not merely do better work, but more work, than their competitors. In Russia the hands work twelve hours a day: in Germany and France, eleven; in England, nine. Yet, nine hours day of English work mean more than twelve hours of Russian work. The laborer re- ceives better wages, and. at the same time, the manufacturer gets larger product--so much larger that it is the Russian, the German, or the Frenchman who requires protection against his Eng lish competitor, in spite of the longer hours and lower days wages. As long as hours can be reduced without reducing the value of the product-that is to say, as long aS the quantity remains the same, or as long as any loss in quantity is counterbalanced by an improvement in quality-so long will the labOrer contin- ue to rise in the industrial scale with the shortening of his hours of work. (The effect of reductions in the hours of labor which diminish the quantity of product without corresponding increase in the quality-in other words, which diminish the value of the work performed-is another matter. We do not enter upon it here because it is better to base the present discussion upon undisputed facts.) Where we find long hours pre- vailing, it means, in general, (apart from the special circumstances of particular trades that the system of production IS based on the wants of the less efficient members of the community rather than the more efficient ones.
 Monthly payment means, for the ma jority of workmen, a system of store credits which makes commercial inde- pendence impossible. It means either that the hands do not appreciate the ad- vantages of the cash system, or that they have not had the chance to get far enough ahead to avail themselves of those advantages. It means that the manufacturer can avoid the expense and trouble of frequent cash payments be- cause the hands either do not realize the loss which they suffer, or are not fit to avail themselves of the advantage of cash payment if it were granted them. This matter is discussed at length in the clos ing sections of the report.
 Now, any one of these things, by itself, may do little harm. Monthly payment is sometimes necessitated by the charac- ter of the work; sometimes the employees are in such good position financially that they suffer no disadvantage bY waiting a